Q: What is your take on the advantages of instigating multidimensional feedback with a blog through outlets like comment functionality versus a more traditional publishing model? Is it a feature more common with paid, server side software?

Putting aside the issue of comment spam, which has forced many weblog authors to turn off their comment features for the time being, there are a few reasons why a weblog author would want to allow a multidimensional conversation through comments.

1. Comments, or multidimensional communications, are what form the foundation for a community around the weblog and it’s respective topics. Comments, especially on corporate weblogs, allow you to hear the voice of your customers, good or bad, in a direct medium. Shutting off comments, on the other hand, illustrates your unwillingness to listen through what is arguably one of the most effective ways to genuinely connect with customers.
   
2. Comments facilitate connections among ‘audience members’, allowing others to add fuel to a topic, in a similar fashion to how trackbacks facilitate connections among bloggers, allowing them to offer commentary on others’ posts in their own forum, namely, their own weblog. As an aside, trackbacks are becoming more important to the community as more people who may have only been ‘commenters’ before have become authors by starting their own weblogs. One only has to look at the flame war that ensued among bloggers and commenters when MovableType announced their new pricing and licensing model in May.
   
3. Comments grease the social networking wheels of blogging. They can be an integral part of a blogger building their community. By commenting on another’s weblog with intelligent or arousing dialog, a new blogger can garner visitors to his/her site through contributions to others’ conversations. In essence, comments are vital to building the blogging ecosystem.
   

All blogging software is “server side”, the difference is in the hosted plans like TypePad, or the installed versions like MovableType and WordPress. I’m not sure that there’s a difference. I know that both TypePad, the hosted version of MovableType (for better or worse) has comment capability, as does MT.

Use of comments is a good, idealistic strategy for a corporate blog to connect with readers/customers.

But, what about usage? Seeing "Comments (0)" certainly isn't dialog inspiring (except me, perhaps). The silence can be deafening.

By the same token, what if "Comments (17)" is displayed? Now the reader has to react to other readers, and not just the core article. Or is just being able to read others comments enough?

I agree with you Dana.

No comment, no point.